Bal Harbour, Fla.
With less than five months remaining until it hosts the Democratic National Convention, the City of Boston and its Mayor, Thomas Menino, have yet to resolve 29 of their 32 open collective bargaining agreements with the city unions. Shamefully, they have not even had serious negotiations with many of them.
Furthermore, in contrast to the economic challenges facing many municipalities today, Boston’s financial situation is sound, with some $493 million in reserves. Indeed, by all accounts, the obstacles interfering with a speedy resolution of these contract disputes should not involve wages or benefits; rather, what is at issue is mainly a question of respect, or complete lack thereof.
The Boston Patrolmen’s Association (IUPA) contract expired almost two years ago; the Boston Teachers Union (AFT), various SEIU and AFSCME units, the Steelworkers, the Firefighters, and several building trades unions are also working without contracts. The Mayor last fall promised to get the agreements settled within 120 days, yet we are 60 days past that deadline and he has hardly started the process.
To the Boston labor movement’s credit, the unions are strongly united and have made clear to Mayor Menino that he must resolve these agreements with all the unions, not just one or two. The building trades unions have expressed their solidarity by declining for now to enter into the standard project labor agreement with the Democratic National Committee around the City’s convention-related construction work, calling on the Mayor to treat their sister unions fairly.
The prospect of a Democratic Convention with a Democratic Mayor in a strong union city under these conditions is untenable and cannot be tolerated. Moreover, it would be unacceptable to wait until the final weeks before the Convention to resolve this situation.
The AFL-CIO calls upon Mayor Menino to settle the City’s contracts with all affected unions now. We also call on the Democratic National Convention to make clear to the Mayor that these agreements must be reached immediately; that to hold its Convention in a city that does not respect its own employees or their unions is not an option.